Jump to the content zone at the center

Camping Asia: An interdisciplinary choreography platform for the next generation

 
Camping Asia
Photo from TPAC
From left to right, River Lin, curator of the “Camping Asia” festival; Catherine Tsekenis, Executive Director of Centre National de la Danse in France; Chen Yu-hsin, Deputy Commissioner of Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs; and Austin Wang, Director of Taipei Performing Arts Center, light a campfire to announce the kickoff of the festival in Taipei.

By Yali Chen
 
Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) and the Centre National de la Danse (CND) in France worked together to hold the first “Camping Asia” festival in Taipei.
 
From Nov. 18 through Nov. 29, the festival functioned as a venue for artistic experimentation gathering international professional dancers, local dance students, dance lovers, and audiences.
 
Dance students from Taiwan and overseas gather outside the National Theatre and Concert Hall
Photo from TPAC
Dance students from Taiwan and overseas gather outside the National Theatre and Concert Hall.

In 2015, the CND opened its studios and halls to choreographers and dance students once a year in a program called “Camping.” Two years later, the TPAC and CND signed an agreement to launch the first “Camping Asia” in Taipei, said Chen Yu-hsin, Deputy Commissioner of Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
 
“We hope that it can shatter the original framework of art education and establish an interdisciplinary choreography platform for professional dancers and dance students in Asia,” she said.
 
Japanese artist Takao Kawaguchi’s work “About Kazuo Ohno.”
Photo from TPAC
Japanese artist Takao Kawaguchi’s work “About Kazuo Ohno.”
 
The TPAC invited more than 100 students from 12 art schools worldwide and 20 multidisciplinary artists from France, Belgium, the U.S., Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.
 
The festival featured 9 ticketed shows, 30 free shows, 14 workshops, 3 international forums, and 44 courses. These events showed the possibilities of exploring body and multidisciplinary arts.

Japanese artist Takao Kawaguchi used video recordings to reproduce the dance of Kazuo Ohno. His fascinating work “About Kazuo Ohno” gives rise to far-reaching questions.
 
Ohno was a Japanese dancer who became a guru and inspirational figure in the dance form known as Butoh, developed in Japan after World War II. It mimes the primeval darkness of life and death in harrowing theatrical physical imagery, evoking the horror of wartime bombings in Japan.
 
Australian artist Angela Goh performs like a worm with a hose in her work “Desert Body Creep.”
Photo from TPAC
Australian artist Angela Goh performs like a worm with a hose in her work “Desert Body Creep.”
 
Choreographed and performed by Australian artist Angela Goh, “Desert Body Creep” combines dance, music and objects. This performance turns fear and horror into an imaginary force, exploring transformation through decay and inviting a new idea of reality based on sweet and tender destruction.
 
French choreographer Mathilde Monnier and Spanish choreographer La Ribotin’s creation “Gustavia.”
Photo from TPAC
French choreographer Mathilde Monnier and Spanish choreographer La Ribotin’s creation “Gustavia.”
 
“Gustavia” is a mesmerizing encounter between two key figures Mathilde Monnier and La Ribotin in contemporary dance. This burlesque cabaret is a caustic and spirited critique on the stereotypical roles of women in art, life and work.